• ooma

    How Ashton Kutcher killed a startup guy's Hollywood dream

    It was a fantasy left over from the last boom: Hire a movie star to pitch your startup, and the dusting of tinsel will turbocharge sales. Those William Shatner ads sold plane tickets for Priceline, right? But the career of hard-partying entrepreneur Andrew Frame did not follow that script. We hear he was just fired as CEO of the Internet-phone startup he cofounded, Ooma. His most notable decision, hiring actor Ashton Kutcher as "creative director," did not pan out; Kutcher made a few incomprehensible videos, and then faded from the scene. More »

    11:20 AM on Fri Nov 21 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    10,198 views, 8 comments

    Most discussed ElvisWorley: $250? When I can buy a Magic Jack for a fraction of the price and get the same free service. more »

  • deathwatch

    Glam Media making publishers wait four months for cash

    When will Samir Arora admit that Glam Media, his online ad network, is running out of money? Glam buys up ad space on websites and resells it to advertisers, as well as operating a few token websites itself. But it has overpaid for much of that space, and revenues are running dangerously short of projections. Now, Glam is delaying its payments to partners by up to 120 days, claiming that the move is necessary because advertisers are slowing their payments to Glam. Which is utter nonsense. More »

    3:20 PM on Tue Nov 4 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    549 views, 2 comments

    Latest by Robert Barr: The only organization that I know of that pays net 120 is the government. If Glam is have accounts receivables more »

  • Peng Zhou

    The martyr of Tesla Motors

    Having laid off 75-some employees and run his electric carmaker's cash balance down to $9 million, what is Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk busying himself with? Conducting a witch hunt to find who leaked Tesla's financials to Valleywag. The Truth About Cars has published an email it claims is from Musk, which includes a letter apology from R&D director Peng Zhou. The only thing that's curious: Our tipster said he'd been at Tesla for four years. Zhou has only been there for two years. In Musk's haste to find someone to blame, did he extract a forced confession from the wrong man? More »

    9:40 AM on Tue Nov 4 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    6,238 views, 9 comments

    Latest by dodgit: The trouble with Tesla: Musk alienates Tesla's best employees. Eberhard, Straubel, Zhou. The fundamental technology that the company has is great, more »

  • deathwatch

    Tesla to borrow $40 million from investors

    The slow-motion crash of Tesla Motors continues. Last week, an insider revealed the electric-car maker, once the best hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-transportation industry, had only $9 million in the bank. Now, Elon Musk, the investor who recently deposed the company's CEO, claims the company has commitments for another $40 million in financing from some of its current investors, a group which includes Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and former eBay president Jeff Skoll. But that money is debt, not equity. More »

    9:40 AM on Mon Nov 3 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,366 views, 10 comments

    Latest by TMonster: This company still has some life in it and just might prove all the skeptics wrong. Their failure is by more »

  • deathwatch

    Tesla Motors has $9 million in the bank, may not deliver cars

    The Valley's hottest electric-car maker is running on fumes. Tesla Motors, the brightest hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-automotive industry, has only $9 million in the bank, a longtime employee tells us. The company, which recently laid off dozens of employees and announced the closing of its Detroit office, called an all-hands meeting yesterday evening to inform employees of its financial state. What makes the company's low cash balance especially scary, our tipster says, is that the company has taken "multiple tens of millions" of dollars in deposits from customers — anywhere from $5,000 to $60,000 per vehicle — and has only delivered 50 of them. The obvious conclusion: Having already spent its customers' deposits, it may run out of money before it delivers the cars they have paid for. Here's the Tesla insider's report: More »

    5:00 PM on Thu Oct 30 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    13,979 views, 52 comments

    Most discussed squablow: A Tesla is just a Lotus with an electric drivetrain swapped in. I know guys who do that kind of more »

  • rumormonger

    LiveUniverse struggling to pay employees, clients

    It's only a matter of a few hundred dollars, but after high acquisitive LiveUniverse acquired affiliate movie marketer Peerflix, blogger Eric D. Snider stopped receiving the until-then-regular checks. Which happened around the exact same time that we got a tip — in late August — that LiveUniverse didn't have enough cash to pay employees on payday. And it's just the latest in a string of bad signs. More »

    8:40 AM on Thu Oct 2 2008
    By Jackson West
    2,164 views, 6 comments

    Most discussed SanchitaLumos: Here’s the real deal, folks. LU and Brad G have been totally screwing vendors, service providers and employees for months, more »

  • deathwatch

    Uber.com firesale to feature cheap, lightly used Aeron chairs

    And so it begins — like a bad flashback to the year 2000, word comes from a tipster that while investors have pulled the plug on social networking startup Uber the site and service may stay online thanks to some free hosting help from ShareNow. But that doesn't mean there will be any employees around minding the store. There will be nothing to mind, since the company is planning to sell off all its physical assets as a lot, according to a tipster citing a rant from a soon-to-be-ex-employee. The bitterness at what's left of the company is already starting to set in, with particular scorn for co-founder and company president Glenn Kaino who was described as "a real bastard," to paraphrase the disgruntled minion. So while it may not exactly be a chance to save Uber, it may well be a chance to get that deal on a piece of Hermann Miller office furniture if you missed your chance in the dot-bomb. Who'd a thunk a site intended for jetset hipsters would end up a bargain-hunter's dream?

    5:00 AM on Thu Oct 2 2008
    By Jackson West
    2,459 views, 8 comments

    Most discussed SajalaAlligator: How did they blow through five million dollars so quickly? I thought MC Hammer had his hands full with dancejam. more »

  • deathwatch

    Sneaky ad startup Jellycloud deflates, taking $50 million-plus with it

    The online-ad network market is clogged with startups; most are bound to fail. But no death may be greeted with more joy than Jellycloud, the latest incarnation of Gator, a startup whose software was caught spying on users. A tipster tells us Jellycloud, with 36 employees, went under this weekend, with liquidators repossessing their furniture. A hard death, after a questionable birth. More »

    10:40 AM on Tue Sep 30 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,909 views, 4 comments

    Latest by MelodyLeda: Amazing that exec team was able to get funded, especially as they got rid of all the people that knew/did more »

  • deathwatch

    How long will Randy Falco stay at AOL?

    Let us say it, since every other writer seems too kind: As CEO of AOL, Randy Falco is an utter embarrassment. Silicon Alley Insider recounts his perplexing performance in front of a crowd of media executives gathered for Advertising Week in New York. "Radio was supposed to die 50 years ago," Falco said. "The reason radio is still around is because of mobile. The reason broadcast will still be around 50 years from now is because of mobile. All of our businesses up here will continue to grow because of video applications on mobile." What? More »

    1:20 PM on Mon Sep 22 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,607 views, 5 comments

    Latest by Rachel Marsden: ROCK ME AMADOUCHEBAG!!! Falco's dead. more »